This was the topic of the sixth annual meeting of the Bavarian debt advisers in Augsburg (28/11/ - 29/11/06). Dieter Korczak was invited to give a lecture on "Financial education as debt prevention in Europe" as key speaker. The presentation charts can be downloaded.

December 2006 - Pre-Announcement: Nanotechnologies

In summer 2007, Dieter Korczak and Anton Lerf will edit a book on nanotechnologies presenting the papers of the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Interdisciplinary Society. Press information in German can be downloaded.

December 2006 - Dieter Korczak elected as ESOMAR Council Member

Dieter Korczak was elected as new member of the ESOMAR Council. Esomar is the world largest research association. The board of the association includes now: Frits Spangenberg (president), Ann Margreth Hellberg (vice-president), John Marinopoulos (Australia), Paulo Pinheiro de Andrade (Brasil),
Dieter Korczak (Germany), Laurent Flores (France), Clara Origlia (Italy), Rosana Urosa Cruz (Spain), Sue Nosworthy (United Kingdom) and Gunilla Broadbent (USA).

November 2006 - Amnesty of debts: Amicable agreement and statutory solution - a discussion of the Dutch model

On 6 th-7 th November in Rotterdam a peer review with Denmark, Sweden, France, Lithuania and Luxembourg was organized in the framework of the EU-programme against social exclusion. The Dutch approach of debt amnesty was object of the peer review. As base of the conference Dieter Korczak presented a discussion paper which is stored under www.peer-review-social-inclusion.net.

November 2006 - Expert talk "Environment and justice"

The term justice becomes more and more important in the context of environmental policy. In the Anglo-Saxon area "environmental justice" or "ecological justice" show an already well-established field of research. In Germany this discussion is comparatively new. For this purpose on 30.-31. October the GP Forschungsgruppe conducted an expert talk in Berlin on behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and of the Federal Environment Agency. More than 60 experts from environmental and social policy, associations, organizations, labour unions, media and political administration participated. One essential element of the talk was the integration of ecological justice/ fairness into the poverty and wealth reporting. For further information please see www.umweltbundesamt.de under the keyword "ecological justice".

November 2006 - Market Research Fair in Munich, November 15th-16th

Dieter Korczak was engaged as moderator of a panel discussion which took place at the first German Market Research Fair. Participants on stage were Hartmut Scheffler, Stefan Teuber, Oliver Perzborn, Dr. Marcus Mende and Frank Lüttschwager. One of the common opinion was that the future needs market research information managers. Their job will be to reduce the information overload resulting from the increase of communication media, and to filter and evaluate information.

Nanotechnology is a technology with a promising future and a lot of reservations by the public. "Everything nano - isn't it?" - that is the subject of ten experts on a conference from October , 6 th to 8 th, organized by the Interdisciplinary Scientific Society. Under the chairmanship of Dieter Korczak, scientists from physics and chemistry, medicine and biocybernetics, philosophy and social science present and discuss the expectations, applications and consequences of nanotechnology. The conference takes place at the Catholic Conference Hall, Karlsstraße 32, Munich, Germany. Guests are welcomed. For further information see www.Studiengesellschaft.de.

October 2006 - Financial education as element of consumer protection

At 27th October Dieter Korczak was invited by the Polish consumer protection organisation SKEF to give a lecture about the financial education and prevention in Gdansk. Amongst others he expounded the problems to what extent financial education is an independent area or part of the consumer protection, whether the sense of responsibility among the involved actors is sufficient or whether there is a need for stronger regulations by the state and which status independent information have in comparison to stakeholder-information.

September 2006 - Patient survey about the satisfaction with aesthetic operations starts

On Wednesday, 13th September 2006, the first scientific worldwide survey about the satisfaction of patients after aesthetic and cosmetic operations starts. The survey is the second step of the research project: "Aesthetic and cosmetic surgery: data, problems, legal questions" which the GP Forschungsgruppe conducts for the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection. 50 hospitals and surgeries in Germany agreed to participate with their patients in this study. Additionally persons with aesthetic and cosmetic operations will be recruited in a representative sample survey and will be interviewed with the same questionnaire.

July 2006 - Amnesty of debts. A legal solution to overindebtedness

The Lisbon European Council of March 2000 asked Member States to develop strategies to eradicate poverty in Europe by 2010. Member States coordinate their policies for combating poverty and social exclusion by using the 'Open Method of Coordination' (OMC). Peer Reviews are a key instrument of the OMC. One of the peer reviews in 2006 deals with the Dutch way of debt amnesty. Helping good faith debtors and their creditors is the aim of the Dutch debt clearance procedure (WSNP). For the evaluation and the transferability of the Dutch approach Dieter Korczak has been asked to write an expert thematic paper and to synthesize the results of the peer review process. The peer meeting will take place in November 2006 in Rotterdam. See www.peer-review-social-inclusion.net.

June 2006 - 3 new publications

Health, Environmental Moral, Sustainability Management

June 2006 - Quo vadis, health?

Dieter Korczak reflects in an essay the developments of the German Healthcare system since 1992 in the book "Slower, less, better, nicer (Langsamer, weniger, besser, schöner)", edited by Hans Glauber. The book can be ordered by ISBN 3-928244-99-X.

June 2006 - Sustainable development. Responsible marketing and moral.

Another essay of Dieter Korczak deals with barriers which prohibit a better realization of sustainability in politics, economy and on the consumer side. The essay has been published in "Environmental ethics (Umweltethik)", edited by Kaatsch, Rosenau & Theobald 2006 (ISBN 3-8258-9384-7).

June 2006 - Sustainable management - indicator based control for better quality of life

The use of indicators in communities leads to a better control of administrative and political activities with the aim to gain a better quality of life. The existing methods and the achieved results by German communities are described in an essay of Dieter Korczak in the publication "City management. Strategies for modernization (Stadtmanagement. Strategien zur Modernisierung der Stadt(-Region)", edited by Heidi Sinning (ISBN 3-929797-96-8).

May 2006 - Debt Counselling on the right Avenue? Perspectives in Germany and Europe

The German Federal Association for Debt Counselling is celebrating the 20 th anniversary. At the annual conference in Berlin from 10 th to 11 th May, Dieter Korczak will present results from his latest study on the transferability of European modells of debt counselling and money advice to Germany. Following the presentation he will moderate a panel discussion with Members of the Parliament from all the different political parties. The report (in German) on transferability can be downloaded here.

April 2006 - Responsible Credit

The 6th International Conference on Financial Services will take place on April 28th and 29th 2006 in Brussels. 300 guests from all European countries will attend the conference. Dieter Korczak was invited as a speaker for the workshop "Can Risk-Based Pricing Work in th Absence of Comprehensive Credit Reporting?". For further information see www.responsible-credit.net.

March 2006 - Research Project Cosmetic Surgery

In the meantime more than 1600 plastic surgeons, dermatologists, ear, nose and throat doctors, gynaecologists, oral surgeons and beauty institutes have received the questionnaire for evaluation of aesthetic and cosmetic operations as well as laser procedures and liposuctions. That means that the first time a nearly complete directory of providers of cosmetic surgery will be available.

March 2006 - Conference on better access to financial services for people experiencing poverty and social exclusion

From 9th-12th March 2006 the first conference of the project "financial education and better access to adequate financial services", enhanced by the EU Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, under the patronage of the Polish president of the parliament Bogdan Borusewicz took place in Warsaw. 54 participants from 18 countries presented their national situation, discussed best-practice models and developed strategies for a better access for poor and excluded persons. After the panel discussion with Boguslaw Kaczmarek (SKEF), Hans Grohs (ASB Schuldnerberatungen) and Olivier Jerusalmy (l'Observatoire du Credit et de l'endettement) Dieter Korczak stated in his summary: "Let me finish my summary with the remark that the objective and hard work we have done during the last two days will open the discussion for new approaches of public-private-partnerships on the one hand, and will realize on the other hand where legislative control and activities are needed. The conference was a real success, last but not least due to the well-known and overwhelming Polish hospitality." First results are stored under www.festwoday.net. The project will be carried forward with the analysis of the financial education in Europe.

March 2006 - From credit-taking to over-indebtedness

On the symposium 2006 of the LAG Schuldnerberatung M.-V. from 8.-9 th March in Schwerin Dieter Korczak hold a speech about the backgrounds of getting into deep debts which illuminated the consumption patterns in the childhood and biographic breaks in the adulthood.

March 2006 - International market research - challenges and successful solutions

Moderated by Dieter Korczak, the ESOMAR-representative in Germany, trends, challenges on the BVM-conference in Frankfurt on 7 th March. Besides theoretical and methodological approaches, analyses from China, Latin America and East European countries were presented. The companies ARAL and SaraLee GmbH informed about different ways to organise international market research. For more information see www.bvm.org/fachtagung.

February 2006 - Research project "Aesthetic and cosmetic surgery"

The research project "aesthetic and cosmetic surgery" will start the fieldwork this month. More than 1000 hospitals, private practices and beauty institutes receive a questionnaire, covering socio-demographic data, different kinds of cosmetic operations and the costs for the treatment. The study is conducted on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Consumer Protection. More information in German see PDF.

The Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt and the dean of Social Work, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Bartosch invited Dieter Korczak to give a speech at the symposium "Hartz IV - appearance and reality" and to participate in the panel discussion. He pointed at the necessity of a differentiated counselling of Hartz IV-beneficiaries and required an urgent reorientation towards real aid which is adapted to the circumstances of the 4.8 million unemployed people. His analysis is based upon his "theory of over-indebtedness" (this can be referred in the recently published book "money and other passions", Asanger-Verlag).